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Difficult airway management during general anaesthesia, inadequate supervision of trainee anaesthetists and a lack of appropriate monitors were the major anaesthetic reasons for maternal mortality. Recommendations have been made to ensure that parturients and the unborn child receive the best anaesthetic care attainable in the hospital.

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There is a vast body of evidence to suggest that osteoarthritis is a heterogenous condition that involves not only the articular cartilage but also an adaptive response of the bone and the synovium to a variety of environmental, genetic and biomechanical stresses. 5-11 There is also growing evidence pointing towards long term potentiation as the most likely mechanism for the transition of acute nociception to a chronic pain (CP) state. The complexity and plasticity of the nociceptive system not only serve survival needs but also provide research opportunities for pharmacologic modulation of human suffering resulting from osteoarthritis.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the demographic characteristics of patients who suffered cardiac arrest in our ICUs and to identify those factors influencing outcome after resuscitation following cardiac arrest. We reviewed the records of all patients who underwent CPR in the two ICUs at the Georg-August University Hospital Goettingen, Germany from 1 January, 1999 to 31 December, 2003. During the study period 169 patients underwent CPR and 80 of the 169 patients survived to hospital discharge, giving a survival to hospital discharge rate of 47.3%. The initial monitored rhythm recorded at the time of arrest was asystole in 99 (58.6%) patients, ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation in 59 (34.9%) and pulseless electrical activity in 7 (4.1%) patients. The respective survival rates were 46 (54.8%), 31 (36.9%) and 5 (6.0%) to hospital discharge. Of the 80 patients that survived to hospital discharge 75 (93.8%) achieved good cerebral recovery (CPC 1 or 2) and were alert and fully oriented on discharge; 4 patients (5.0%) were severely disabled (CPC 3), while 1 (1.2%) remained unconscious and was reported dead five days after discharged to another local hospital. Illness severity as assessed by SAPS II score on admission was 38.8 +/- 16.0. None of our patients with > 40 SAPS II score 24 hours after CPR survived to be discharged from the ICU. Our study showed that nearly half the patients that had cardiac arrest in our hospital ICUs had a favourable outcome despite initial rhythms that are traditionally associated with a poor outcome. This confirms that good results are achievable in these groups of patients.

Osteoarthritis (OA) has been described "as a condition characterized by userelated joint pain experienced on most days in any given month, for which no other cause is apparent". The primary problem in OA is the damage to the articular cartilage which triggers a series of other events that culminate in pain and loss/limitation of function in the affected joint. OA is estimated to affect 70% to 80% of people older than 55 years. There is a vast body of evidence to suggest that OA is a heterogenous condition that involved not only the articular cartilage but also an adaptive response of the bone and the synovium to a variety of environmental, genetic and biomechanical stresses. Undoubtedly, pain which is the most prominent and disabling presentation of OA is an increasingly important public health problem especially with an increasing aging population.

Liberal compared to restrictive administration of i.v. crystalloid is associated with a clinical modest reduction in pain. Pulmonary dysfunction was not increased with liberal fluid administration.